SRK to Deposit Rs 1 cr with the Bombay High Court before ‘Ra.One’ release

Just when everything seems to be at its height for the release of what it seems the most anticipated movie of the century there is another glitch in the process. Bombay High Court has found some prima facie evidence that there have been a few copyright infringements in the movie. The court has directed actor-producer Shah Rukh Khan to deposit Rs 1 crore with the court before going ahead with releasing his dream project.

“The defendants (Sharukh, his production house Red Chillies Entertainment and Eros Entertainment) are directed to deposit a sum of Rs one crore as pay-order to the court and then release the movie,” a division bench composed of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Roshan Dalvi said.

A petition was filed by television writer and producer Mr. Yash Patnaik. Apparently he is contending to be the originator of both the concept and content of ‘Ra.One’. Patnaik claims that he owns the original copyrights for the Red Chillies Entertainment production.

In addition the court also made it clear that if SRK and Red Chillies Entertainment failed to deposit the asked sum by tomorrow it will make an injunction operable against the movie’s release.

“It is the most unfortunate part of the film industry that people use others’ concepts and then don’t want to pay or give them credit,” the division bench commented. The final decision in the case however is still pending and the court plans to hear the arguments of the defenders in the due course.

The movie which stars Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal is scheduled to be released on the 26th of October. Patanaik is pleading for a stay order on the film’s release until he is given all the required credits for the concept and content of ‘Ra.One’. And in case he is not given the right credits he has sought for a 10% profit margin in the profits the movie makes.

Senior advocate Ravi Kadam who is Patnaik’s lawyer claimed that the character played by Shah Rukh Khan, i.e. the superhero in ‘Ra.One’ very much resembles the one Patnaik conceptualized in 2006.

“The super-villain of Patnaik’s script was called ‘One’, which has been used by Shahrukh in the movie’s title,” Kadam added.

SRK’s lawyer senior advocate Virendra Tulzapurkar on the other hand argued that his client’s script, concept and content are completely different from that of Patnaik’s. Besides Patnaik cannot claim copyright on this script as he has used a team of experts to develop his concept.

The judges though postponed the hearing of the case to a later date did not help commenting that it seemed from the prima facie that there had been a copyright violation.